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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22992913">I Hear Your Voice In Flashbacks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastyoungrene_gay_de/pseuds/lastyoungrene_gay_de'>lastyoungrene_gay_de</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Klaus and Dave playlist... Klave playlist... a Klavelist, if you will [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Commission AU, Dave Is Alive, Dave's POV, F/M, Five's POV, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, No Incest, POV Multiple, Patch's POV, Reunions, allison and vanya are becoming friends with patch because i said so, but the siblings dont know, chapter one is patch and dave just loving their boyfriends and telling each other about them, dave and patch are partners, dave telling luther he and his siblings need some fucking therapy, hell yeah babey reunion time!!, hell yeah here we go, i cant believe i have to say that but there is in fact no incest, it's like literally have a sentence tho nothing serious, klaus is in a skirt and dave is Gay, luther and dave interaction hell yeah, luther is trying he's just kinda confused, patch is alive</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:34:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>21,490</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22992913</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastyoungrene_gay_de/pseuds/lastyoungrene_gay_de</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Commission partners David Katz and Eudora Patch are just trying to get through their time at the commission and into retirement, but one assignment makes them realize things are a lot more complicated than that. </p><p>Title from Simple Creatures' Adrenaline</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dave/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Eudora Patch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Klaus and Dave playlist... Klave playlist... a Klavelist, if you will [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1741702</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>336</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm not sure how steady my updating schedule is going to be, but I have a plan for at least the next few chapters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>David Katz collapsed onto one of the crappy motel beds in the crappy motel room his employer booked for him and his partner. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This place is even worse than the last one,” his partner, Eudora Patch, said. He looked over at her from where he was lying on his bed. She was going through the files their employer left for them with the motel staff. She’d been a cop in her life before the commission, and it showed now. She always wanted to know the details- or, as many details as the commission would give them. That was one of the differences between them. Another difference was that Patch came from a time fifty years after Dave died. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave had died in 1969. In Vietnam. Apparently his army experience had made him interesting to their employer. The detective/ soldier dynamic worked well for them. She gave orders and he followed. Luckily for him, she was a lot better at putting plans together than his superiors in the military. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He ran his fingers over the dog tags around his neck. He smiled lightly when his fingers traced the name stamped on them. KLAUS HARGREEVES. The last thing Dave remembered before waking  up in the commission’s hospital wing was Klaus’ voice, screaming for a medic and begging him not to leave him alone in the war zone. His fingers stilled as he remembered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Seems like a pretty routine assignment,” Patch said, pulling Dave out of his  thoughts. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah?” he asked, not really caring all that much.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said and dropped onto her own bed. “I’ll put a plan together in the morning.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay.” He went back to staring at the ceiling. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re about to be one mission closer to being done,” she sighed. She hated this as much as he did. Because he did hate it, just as much as he hated being a soldier. At least here he wasn’t being shot at as often. He pulled Klaus’ tags out from under his shirt and looked at them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Those yours?” Patch asked. He looked over at her and shook his head. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, a friend’s,” he said and let them drop to his chest. He looked up at the ceiling once again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just a friend?” she asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” he said without looking away from the popcorn designs on the ceiling. That was one of the more shocking things Patch told him about her time, that it was okay that Klaus had been more than just a friend. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both let the subject drop. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It resurfaced a few missions later when she was stitching up a bullet graze on his shoulder. He was squeezing the tags with the hand on the side that wasn’t being patched up. He laughed to himself, </span>
  <em>
    <span>patched</span>
  </em>
  <span> up. He would have told that joke out loud, but he didn’t think that would end well. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tell me about him,” she said as she cleaned the wound on his shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Dave hissed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The dog tags,” she said with a nod toward his hand. “The guy. Tell me about him. Take your mind off this.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why would I want to take my mind off all this fun?” Dave spit through his clenched teeth. She glared at him. “Okay,” he sighed and closed his eyes, trying to find words to describe Klaus. “He was the guy who made everyone feel better no matter where we were or what we were doing. He was funny, ya know? Always took our minds off the shit. And he was so much better than where we were. No one really knew where he came from or how he got there- he just kinda showed up one day.” Patch hummed as she made a movement that made Dave flinch. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry,” she said. Dave just continued as if nothing happened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he was beautiful,” he said with a chuckle. “And I was happy whenever I was around him- in the middle of the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking war</span>
  </em>
  <span>. God and he was so interesting and </span>
  <em>
    <span>bright</span>
  </em>
  <span> and the fact that he would give someone as boring as me a second thought seemed impossible.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well,” Patch said and lightly smacked his arm to signal she was finished cleaning him up. “You are anything but boring, now.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I guess,” Dave said and looked down at his now bandaged arm. She crossed her arms across her chest and leaned against the bathroom counter. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So how’d you end up with his dog tags?” she asked. She nodded toward his hand again, where it was still wrapped around the tags. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We swapped them,” Dave said softly as he remembered the night on their second leave after Klaus got to camp. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’d kissed at the disco during their first leave together, and they’d spent the following months stealing touches and kisses in the dark corners of base. Dave had been eager to get away from the crowds and into a hotel. Apparently Klaus had been too, because as soon as the door was closed behind them he was kissing him, deep and passionate and the kind Dave had been craving since the end of the last leave. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’d swapped their tags later that night. It was an accident at first, Klaus slipping his tags over Dave’s head and moving to put the other pair around his own neck. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Babe, these are yours,” Dave had said after looking at them closely. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh,” Klaus said softly and stopped Dave from reaching up to make the correction. “Keep ‘em,” he’d said. “I think you’re the only person who would care if anything happened to me, anyway.” Then it was Dave’s turn to stop Klaus from giving Dave his own tags. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave pulled himself out of his memory and back to Patch. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Neither of us really had anyone outside the war to miss us anyway.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch nodded. “I’m sorry man.” Dave just shrugged. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Listening to Katz talk about his boyfriend always made Patch think about Diego. Katz had that in one of the most difficult places to have it, and she and Diego didn’t work out because… what? He wanted to help others more than the law allowed him to, so he started doing it his own way? Thinking about it, and knowing what she knew then, at all seemed pointless. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re gonna find him after we retire, aren’t you?” she asked later that night when they were laying in their beds, surrounded by the darkness of the room. They’d been partners in this shit for months now, and she thought they were getting close enough for her to ask. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Katz asked quietly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your boyfriend with your dog tags,” she clarified. “You’re gonna go back to him when you retire?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I hope so,” he said softly. “I mean, if he has a good life without me I won’t fuck that up for him, but if there’s a chance he’d wanna see me again, yeah. I’d go find him.” She hummed as she considered his answer. “What about you?” he asked. “What are you gonna do?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She chuckled a bit before she answered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I had someone back before all this shit,” she said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said and let herself smile a bit. “I mean, kind of. It was complicated. I met him at the police academy, but he didn’t want to work like that. He got kicked out, and essentially became a kind of vigilante.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I like this guy,” Katz said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t think his way of doing things was the right way, I thought getting all the evidence and getting everything done in court was the best way to do it all,” she continued. “I tried it his way once.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really?” Katz asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t elaborate and he didn’t ask her to. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, how’d you do that knife thing earlier?” Katz asked a few missions later. They were recovering from a longer mission than usual, and they knew they were getting a new assignment the next morning, but that night they were sitting at the small table in their room and laughing over drive through fast food. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch looked down at the to- go container in her lap. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The guy back home was… kind of an expert,” she said slowly. “He taught me a few things every once in a while.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What kind of expert?” he questioned. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He had this… talent,” she settled on, deciding not to try to explain the concept of the Umbrella Academy to the guy who’d technically died twenty years before the superpowered children were even born. Most people who </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> alive when they were born didn’t understand. “It was part of the reason he didn’t do well in the police academy. He hated using guns.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I like this guy more the more I hear about him,” Katz laughed and took another bite of his food. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as she looked at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” she said. “You two would either get along </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> well or </span>
  <em>
    <span>not at all</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” She leaned more toward getting along really well, but didn’t say so. She tossed her container onto the table in front of her as she thought. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s up?” His smile fell when she looked up at him. “Patch, what’s wrong?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know how I told you I tried things his way once?” Katz nodded. “It kind of got me killed.”  She sat up a bit and shook her head and corrected herself. “I mean, I died then I woke up at the commission.” Katz nodded. She knew he ‘died’ in Vietnam and she assumed the same thing happened to him, so she continued. “Well, I ‘died’ doing things his way, to help him. His brother had gone missing . We found a note at a crime scene about where he was, so I went to find him. I should have waited for him. But I didn’t.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She raised her hands a little, palms up, and dropped them again quickly in a ‘and her we are’ gesture. Katz’s eyebrows furrowed. He leaned forward and threw his food onto the table next to Patch’s. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hold on,” he said. “You found a note at a crime scene? Like, a related crime scene?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” she said. “What seemed like a completely unrelated crime scene. I don’t know man, there had been some weird shit going on those last few days and his family is fucked up beyond words, so…” She shrugged as she finished. “Maybe they were related. I don’t know, I’m not assigned to that case anymore.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He shook his head and scoffed. He grabbed his food and leaned back in his seat, propping his feet up on the table. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you’re going back there?” he said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” she asked, eyebrows furrowing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A while ago, when I asked what you were gonna do after all this,” he explained. “You told me about the guy. I assumed you would try to go back there.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch slumped back in her seat. “I don’t think I can.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She sighed and remembered what one of the people told her when she first woke up at the commission. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My death was recorded and confirmed,” she said. The woman who told her so in the hospital went into more detail, explaining the timeline from when she died to when the commission was able to get her. “I can’t exactly come back from the dead, can I?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I died,” Katz pointed out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, you were also a soldier,” she shot back. “Mix ups were easy, and explaining to your boyfriend isn’t quite the same as convincing the police and my friends why I’m suddenly alive again.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz nodded slowly. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” He poked at his food again, but didn’t take another bite. He looked back up at her. “What are you going to do then?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She pressed her lips together into a fine line and shook her head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know.” </span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A new assignment reveals a lot.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“One closer,” Patch said and dropped the sawed off shotgun the commission had provided for their last mission. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m showering first,” Dave said, itching and making a beeline for the bathroom. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fuck you,” she called after him. He shut the door with a chuckle. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He hadn’t had this much dirt on his skin since the front lines. He scrubbed and scrubbed but still couldn’t get the feeling of the grime off his skin. Eventually he gave up, knowing Patch had to shower. She was waiting when he opened the bathroom door, rubbing a towel against his hair as he did. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Christ, Katz,” she said and stood up from where she was perched on the edge of her bed, careful not to get too much dirt on the comforter. “Could you have possibly taken a longer shower?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, i’ll do it next time,” he teased as she walked past him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up,” she grumbled as she slammed the door behind her. Dave heard the shower start. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He flopped back into the mattress, and it wasn’t long before he heard the whooshing and the </span>
  <em>
    <span>thunk</span>
  </em>
  <span> of something arriving from their employer in a hidden pneumatic tube. He didn’t bother reading it, he didn’t even move. Patch always opened their assignments, and he was fine with it that way. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Next assignment came,” he said when she opened the bathroom door a few moments later. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ugh,” she groaned. “Can’t we take a fucking nap?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Came from your side,” he said. She opened a few drawers and the mini-fridge looking for the container. She sighed when she saw it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I was hoping I wouldn’t find it,” she said and sat on her bed. “We could just be done.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, I wish,” Dave said and sat up. He watched as she opened the container. She unrolled the note inside, and Dave watched as her eyes widened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why would they send us there?” she whispered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where?” Dave questioned. “When?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Home,” she said and finally looked up at him. “2019. Five days after I died.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the hell?” Dave asked and his eyebrows furrowed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why would they send me there? Us there?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave shook his head. “I don’t know, but I think we’re gonna have to find out.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They arrived in the city in a back alley as the sun was going down. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where do we go?” Dave asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I hate the answer to that question,” Patch said and led them down the street. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why? Where is it?” Dave asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The motel where I died,” Patch said without turning to look at him. He stopped walking, and a few steps later Patch realized and stopped too. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Patch, there is something really fucked up going on here,” he said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know,” she said. “And god dammit, I’m gonna find out what it is.” Dave could tell by the fire in her eyes and the way her jaw was set that she wasn’t backing down. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” he said. “If you’re sure.”  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She nodded firmly, and he did the same, but with less certainty. She spun around and continued walking. He followed her around a few corners and into the parking lot of a rundown motel that looked like every other crappy place they’d stayed at. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Crap!” she hissed as she approached the door to the front office. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s the same worker that was working the night I died,” she explained. “He can’t see me, you have to check us in.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” he said and reached out to open the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We should have a package,” she added. He nodded in understanding and pushed the door open. The guy at the desk didn’t look up as he walked in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Excuse me,” Dave said as he approached the desk. “I should have a reservation for Patch and Katz.” The guy grunted and checked what Dave had learned was a computer. The future was fucking weird. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You need one key?” the worker asked without looking up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Two,” Dave corrected. “And we should have a package.” The guy turned and looked at the floor behind him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” He dropped a pair of keys on the counter. “Lot a’ you guys staying here lately.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Dave asked as he grabbed the keys. The guy reached for the package as he answered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Two guys like you came in about a week ago. Weird reservation, someone left a package for ‘em. Don’t do the other crap they did.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did they do?” Dave asked, though he thought he already knew the answer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Trashed the room, killed a cop,” he answered nonchalantly with a shrug and hauled the package to the desk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll try our best,” Dave said and took the box, ready to get out of the office. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not that I can blame the guys,” the worker said as he plopped back into his chair. “That cop was talking to me not long before they got her. She was a bitch. Said she didn’t think I could read.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I get where she was coming from.” Dave turned around and walked back to the door, ignoring the man’s grumbles calling him an asshole. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Everything good?” Patch asked and pushed herself off the wall she’d been leaning on as soon as he got outside. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I learned something,” he said slowly. “And I don’t think it’s something good.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” she asked and took the box from him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s get to the room first,” he said. They each took a key and set off to find the room. The guy hadn’t told him, and Dave wasn’t going back in to ask. Eventually they found it, and Dave was very relieved when Patch made a comment about it </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> being the room she was shot in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So what’s going on?” she demanded as soon as the door was shut behind them. Of course she wouldn’t give him any time to figure out how to word this shit. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They were commission,” he blurted. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He said the guys who were here a week ago and killed a cop had the same shit as us. The weird way the reservation was made. And they had a package left for them,” Dave explained. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch collapsed onto the bed behind her. “The guys who killed me were commission?” Dave nodded. “What the fuck is going on?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch didn’t want to open the package. She</span>
  <em>
    <span> really </span>
  </em>
  <span>didn’t want to open the package. Whatever was in it could not possibly have been good. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she couldn’t wait anymore. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She slipped out of bed and crawled on the floor to the box. She pushed aside a part of one of the crappy curtains to let some light in and broke the tape keeping the box closed with her fingernail. She opened it and pulled out a piece of paper tucked against its side. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On it was exactly what she was hoping she wouldn’t see- pictures of the Umbrella Academy. A picture of each of the siblings- except Ben- each labeled with their number and their real names. There was even a picture of Five, that showed him as a teenage boy, looking just like he did when he disappeared. One the back of the page their assignment was typed in the commission’s usual typewriter print. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Protect Number Seven. Kill the rest.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch’s eyes began to sting and her vision blurred. She wiped at her eyes when she realized she was crying. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. She doubted Katz would either; he disliked this as much as she did, any reason not to do this would be enough for him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Patch, what the fuck are you doing?” Katz asked. She wiped her eyes again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Looking at the assignment,” she said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t,” she said. “I’m not doing it.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Doing what? What is it?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Him and his family,” she said. “Damnit, I knew the second we got sent here it had something to do with them.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why? Patch what’s going on?” Katz finally flipped a light on and Patch could see the confusion on his face. God knows what he could see on hers, but she didn’t really have it in her to care at the moment. She sighed and tried to find the best way to explain the shit show that was the Umbrella Academy. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So,” she started, still sitting on the floor and doing her best to ignore the box. “When I told you he had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>talent</span>
  </em>
  <span>, that was one way to put it, but another- maybe more accurate- way to put it is power.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz shook his head. “What?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s hard to explain,” she said, “so I wasn’t going to, but now I can’t really get out of it.” She laughed and shook her head. “Oh god.” She put her head in  her hands. “Okay.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Take your time,” Katz said softly. She looked up and exhaled loudly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, October first, 1989, some kids are born,” she started. “Like out of nowhere, people standing up and suddenly they’re pregnant and in labor. And we find out later that most of these kids have weird powers, but before that there’s one asshole billionaire who adopts some of these kids.  Essentially made a team of superheroes, was what he thought he was doing.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And your guy back home was one of them?” Katz asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said with a nod. “The knives thing was his power, really anything he threw he could control even after it left his hand. One of them had super strength, one could like… teleport. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“When I say they were superheroes I wasn’t exaggerating. He kept them away from the public until they were teenagers, then they would go around the world and fight crime. That’s why Diego didn’t do well at the police academy, why he thought it didn’t do enough to help people.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Deigo?” Katz asked softly. She appreciated that he wasn’t trying to push her into giving any more information than she wanted to. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. “At least, by the time I met him. The asshole didn’t even give them names, he just called them by numbers.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, what?” Katz asked and sat up a bit straighter. Something about the numbers had hit him differently than the rest of it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. “Why?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He shook his head as if to shake away distracted thoughts. “Nothing, just… it’s nothing,” he said. She was convinced, but continued on anyway. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, that’s why the vigilante stuff,” she explained. “He hated that he thought he did more to help people as a kid than he could with the police.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can understand that,” Katz said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. I used to think it was a bad thing,” Patch mused and looked back in the box. “Anyway, there was one of them who didn’t have powers. Apparently we’re supposed to protect her… and kill the rest of them.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” so we’re definitely not doing that,” Katz said. “Can I see the paper?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said and stood up to pass it to him. When he took it she turned back to the box and hauled it onto her bed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Patch,” Katz said, voice wavering. His eyes were wide and the paper was shaking slightly in his hands when she looked back at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she asked, slightly concerned. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You said you helped one of his brothers, right?” he asked, eyes not leaving the paper. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, why?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was it this one?” Katz turned the paper around with his finger over the picture Patch had freed a minute before she died. Her eyebrows furrowed as she nodded. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said slowly. “How did you know that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They were commission,” he muttered and threw his comforter off his legs and stood up. “Oh my god they were fucking commission.” He dropped the paper to the floor and ran his hands through his hair. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Katz, what the fuck are talking about?” she demanded. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They took him, they were commission, you helped him,” he said, ignoring Patch's question. He started pacing back and forth by his bed. “”And he ended up </span>
  <em>
    <span>there</span>
  </em>
  <span>, oh god.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Katz!” she yelled, trying to snap him out of whatever panic he was spiraling into. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Who</span>
  </em>
  <span> ended up </span>
  <em>
    <span>where</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz spun around to face her, eyes wild and hands still in his hair. “Klaus,” he whispered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, like-” she started, but stopped when he reached up for the dog tags that were always around his neck. He pulled them over his head and held them out to her. His eyes were pleading, almost begging her to take them and prove he was right, and she slowly reached out and took them. By the time she read the name, she was pretty confident she already knew what it was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>KLAUS HARGREEVES</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck,” she hissed- not out of confusion, because she was putting it together like Katz was- but because she was wondering how it was possible that that family could get involved in anymore bullshit. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>anyway come yell about tua with me on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“We have to figure out what the hell is going on here, Patch,” Katz said. She nodded and stared at her hands as all the weird stuff that happened in those last few days before her death came back to her. The cold case fingerprints, the Griddy’s shooting, the truck driver she found dead in his shop, the department store. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She stood up and started walking toward the door. “Come on,” she said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are we doing?” Katz asked, but she heard him stand up and follow her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There was a lot of weird crap going on my last few days,” she said and threw the door open. “It makes a lot more sense now that I know the commission was in town. We’re retracing my last steps.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Patch kept her head down as Katz picked up a rental car. He tossed her the keys as he walked out of the rental office. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know the roads,’ he said when she caught them, “and where we’re going.” She nodded, and a few minutes later they were on their way to the doughnut shop. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On the road, every few minutes Katz would open his mouth to speak but would never say anything. Patch tried to wait for him to initiate the conversation, but when he started shifting his weight in his seat she spoke up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is it, Katz?” She said in a flat, no nonsense tone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” She shot him a glare from the driver's seat and he quickly crumbled. He sighed and his shoulder slumped. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine” he said and shook his head. She watched him from the corner of her eye as he looked over at her, slightly uncomfortable or unsure. “So… you said their family all had… powers?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Patch said slowly. Oh god, did he want her to explain Klaus’ power? Because she never really understood his. God, what even was the point of being able to- what? See ghosts? Tons of people claimed to be able to do that!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s what the whole ghost thing was, right?” he asked. He must have mistaken her look of relief over not having to explain for misunderstanding, because he clarified, “That was his power, I mean?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. “To be honest, I never really got his power, you know? The rest of them were fairly straight forward- well, except Ben, but even then, we could </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> what was going on with him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ben is he one who died, right?” Katz said as they turned a corner and onto the street Griddy’s was on. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. “He told you about that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mm-hmm,” Katz hummed and looked down at his hands. “I thought he told me everything, but I guess it turns out he didn’t.” Patch could see him deflating as that thought grew. He started fiddling with the dog tags around his neck. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” she said, trying to sound optimistic. “If he told you everything but the superhero childhood and and being from the future, I think it’s safe- what the fuck!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz’s eyes snapped to the road in front of them to follow her gaze, where they saw the smoldering building where she knew Griddy’s should have been. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? What is this place?” Katz asked, sitting all the way up in his seat. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This was the first crime scene,” she said without taking her eyes off what was left of the doughnut shop. “The place got shot up. A few guys, obviously for-hires, got killed and we found fingerprints from a 1930’s cold case at the scene.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, that screams commission,” Katz said and looked over at her. “What next?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch spun in her seat to look behind them and threw the car in reverse. “You think that sounds like the commission?” she said and hit the gas. “Wait ‘till you hear his story.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Creepy masks?” Katz repeated as they came to a stop in front of the department store. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh-huh,” she said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shot up the store one night?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yep.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then went to their house?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yep.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, definitely commission,” he said as they both opened the car doors. “So what exactly are we looking for?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Patch said as they made their way to the entrance. “Anything weird, I guess.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz stopped short and titled his head to gesture to the front of the store. “Like that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She followed his gaze to where Number Five Hargreeves was walking out the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Exactly like that,” she said and sped up to catch up with him. “Number Five!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He spun around on the balls of his feet and his eyes darted all around the street until they landed on the two of them walking toward him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you want?” he asked, eyes narrowing as they got closer. “I’m assuming you’re commission, but what do you want this time?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“To know why we got an assignment to kill everyone in your family except Vanya,” Patch answered shortly. Five’s body language shifted, but she couldn't tell if that was good or bad for them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Commission doesn’t usually ask,” he said. “I was there long enough to know that. What’s going on?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, we decided we’re not gonna do it,” she said and shrugged. “And we’d also like to know what the fuck is going on here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hold on, hold on,” Katz said and took a step forward with a hand out to stop them. “You were commission?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, he’s a fucking icon, Katz,” Patch said inredously and shot him an </span>
  <em>
    <span>are you fucking kidding me right now</span>
  </em>
  <span> look. “Five… Number Five.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katz’s eyes widened and his jaw fell. “Ohh.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh my god,” she said and threw her arms up, too disappointed in her partner to care that Five was standing right there. “You really didn’t make that connection already.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know I figured it was a code name or something,” Katz defended. “Or maybe like a group </span>
  <em>
    <span>of five</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you serious,” she said, having to stop herself from laughing at that point. “When did you ever hear somebody refer to Five as a group?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, but I mean-” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can we get back to the mission regarding </span>
  <em>
    <span>my family’s safety</span>
  </em>
  <span>, please,” Five snapped. “What exactly did it say?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, right,” Patch said. “It had pictures of you and your siblings and said ‘Protect Number Seven. Kill the rest.’ So why Vanya?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Vanya?” Five asked. He tilted his head as he looked at Patch closely. “I thought you said the commission used our numbers. Why do you say Vanya?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They gave us names and numbers, but names are easier for me. I’m from this time, and I knew one of your brothers.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? Who?” Five looked at her again, and Patch could see the realization hit him. “You’re Diego’s cop friend,” he said softly. “When Hazel and Cha-Cha kidnapped Klaus you-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hazel and Cha-Cha?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Patch repeated, recognizing the names from their work at the commission. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Kidnapped Klaus?</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Katz said at the same time. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yeah, they-” Five started, but stopped. His eyes widened, and Patch knew he just fitted another piece of the puzzle. She was pretty sure he could see the whole picture. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Five, wha-” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She causes it,” he whispered to himself. He looked back at Patch and pulled himself out of whatever daze he’d gone into. “Vanya! She causes it!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Causes… what?” Patch asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> trying to</span>
  <em>
    <span> stop</span>
  </em>
  <span>- the reason Hazel and Cha-Cha are here,” Five said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Which is?” Katz prompted. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch wasn’t expecting Five’s answer to be-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The apocalypse.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Neither Patch nor Katz said anything, but Five started hissing under his breath and Pacing. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Shit… Harold Jenkins… Vanya…</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Patch casked, hoping it would remind him they were there and not caught up. “Who’s Gerald Jenkins?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Five stopped short. He looked up at her. “Fuckin’ Diego.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She rolled her eyes. “What’s going on?” She demanded, tired of Hargreeves drama. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you’re gonna help get to the academy as soon as you can,” he said. “I’m gonna jump in right now to make sure my siblings don’t do anything stupid.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that, he disappeared in a flash of blue light. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Five flashed right into the middle of an argument between his siblings. It seemed to be everyone against Luther, including Allison, who was scribbling furiously on a small notepad. His appearance seemed to cut Klaus off, and everyone took a step back as he looked around. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were standing in a poorly lit room that Five had never been in before. On one side of the room there was a tunnel, which he assumed was their way in and out, and on the other side was a cage made of thick, solid metal. The door had a wheel you could turn to open it right below a small window to see inside. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Through the window, Five could see a screaming, crying, </span>
  <em>
    <span>desperate</span>
  </em>
  <span> Vanya. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let her out,” Five said firmly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you, Five!” Klaus cried and held a hand out toward Five with a pointed look toward Luther. Diego was already turning around to open the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Five, you don’t understand,” Luther started, but Five took a step toward him and held a finger out right in front of his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> don’t understand,” he growled. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>She </span>
  </em>
  <span>causes the apocalypse, so right now we need to make sure she doesn’t get stressed out or panicky or over-emotional- like. she. is. now.” He spit the last few words out and threw his hand back so he was pointing at his sister sobbing in her cage. “That makes her unpredictable. Let. Her. Out.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luther looked around the room at the rest of their siblings. He sighed when he looked back at Allison, who was pointing at the door with her eyes narrowed and her jaw set. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” he said softly and walked past his brother to open the door. The door opened and Vanya’s gasps and sobs could be heard through the chamber. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” she cried and fell to the floor. Allison ran forward and dropped to her knees next to Vanya. “Allison, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Allison wrapped her arms around her sister, and both their forms began to shake. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The brothers stood around them awkwardly, but eventually Klaus slowly moved toward them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on,” he said and crouched down so his face was level with his sisters’. “Come on, let’s go back upstairs.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They looked up at him and nodded, sniffling as they stood up. The group all slowly followed the sisters out of the chamber and into a small elevator. They didn’t all fit inside at one time, so Allison, Vanya, and Klaus got in first and the others waited. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Five, what is going on?” Luther demanded when the elevator closed behind the first group. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll explain in a minute,” Five said. “Because I’m not doing it twice.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They spent their elevator ride in silence with Luther standing in a back corner, Diego leaning against the left wall, and Five standing right in front of the doors. When they reached the ground floor, Five slipped through the doors as soon as the gap was big enough. He walked straight to the living room and took a seat at the bar. Luther and Diego followed him in but stood around like they were waiting for him to say something. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go get the others,” he demanded. Luther nodded and walked away and Diego just left without doing anything else. Five turned back to the bar and leaned over the counter, looking for any remains of his margaritas from earlier. He found nothing, and just grabbed the closest bottle. Whatever was coming, he was going to need it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Diego returned a moment later with Allison and Vanya. They had just come from the kitchen if the glasses in their hands were any indication. A minute after that, Luther came back with Klaus from upstairs. They all looked at him expectantly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well,” he started with a sigh. “I should have known they would send more.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? Who?” Luther asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The commission,” Five said, frustration clear in his voice. “They realized Hazel and Cha-Cha weren’t gonna get the job done and sent more agents.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know all this, Five?” Diego asked with his arms crossed across his chest. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because they found me,” he said, spitting the words out and hoping they would stop cutting him off. “Their assignment was to protect </span>
  <em>
    <span>Vanya</span>
  </em>
  <span> and kill the rest of us.” Vanya’s face paled and the rest of them looked between her and Five. When none of them said anything, Five continued. “Hazel and Cha-Cha were here to ensure that the timeline wasn’t changed, and fuck knows what happened to them, so they sent someone else, but this time their instructions were to protect Vanya instead of Harold Jenkins.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know what their instructions were? Another individual time travel adventure?” Diego asked tilting his head up as if accusing Five of getting distracted or not keeping them updated on the apocalypse. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They found me,” he said. “They asked me what the fuck was going on, and told me they weren’t gonna do it.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t understand,” Klaus said lightly and raised his hand with a tilt of his head and closed eyes. “Why would they do that?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because one of them was Diego’s cop friend who saved your life when you got kidnapped by Hazel and Cha-Cha.” Klaus’ head picked up and his eyebrows furrowed. Diego stood up straighter and his eyes widened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s not possible,” Diego said, voice shaking slightly.  “She died, I saw her!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The commission has their ways,” Five said and leaned back against the bar. Allison watched Klaus walk over to Diego and put a hand on his shoulder. She looked between the two of them and wrapped an arm around Vanya. Diego turned back to look at Klaus who raised his eyebrows in a silent question. Diego just nodded and looked back at Five. “She and her commission partner told me they were assigned to protect Vanya. Between that and Harold Jenkins I realized something. Jenkins was the fuse, but Vanya is the bomb.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What- what does that mean?” Vanya asked, looking up at Five with wide, scared eyes. Allison pulled her in closer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Jenkins was the fuse; you’re the bomb,” Five said and held up a hand with his fist balled up. He spread his fingers to mimic an explosion. “You have the power but don’t know how to control it. You have the potential to end the world.” Everyone stared at him with their mouths open. “So no more locking her away,” he demanded harshly. Klaus nodded his head. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luther opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off by a knocking on the door. They all spun to face the hall that led to the entrance. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who could that be?” Diego asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anybody have any plans?” Klaus added. “Luther is your friend from this morning coming back?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luther turned and glared at Klaus, tilting his head in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>do not say another word</span>
  </em>
  <span> way. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That would be the cop friend and her partner,” Five clarified and slid off his seat. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Diego demanded as his brother began walking to the door.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, after I realized what was going on I jumped over here, but before I did I told them to come over here.” He paused in the archway leading to the foyer. “Figured if they really wanted to help they could, and if they were trying to trick us, best to keep them close.” He turned around to look at his siblings again. He looked directly at Diego when he continued. “She seems like someone with a bit of sense in her, though.” And with that, he turned back around and made his way to the door. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i am begging you guys* to come talk to me about tua on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de</p>
<p>*incest shippers this message is NOT for you stay away from me</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hello everybody. Just wanted to apologize for how long this chapter took to post, but at the same thing this will be the longest chapter of the fic (at least so far) by quite a bit. I will admit I got carried away with this one!! <br/>Also, if anyone noticed the change in the number of chapters from 6 to ?, getting carried away with this one went totally off the outline I had, so I'm gonna have to do some adjusting. <br/>Enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Dave stood very, very still as Patch knocked on the door. He’d spent the entire ride to the academy silent and still. The silence was broken only by Patch’s occasionail muttering about “that fucking family.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave spent the whole ride thinking about Klaus. He’d spent so long thinking about Klaus, and suddenly he was on his way to his fucking house. He was probably just a few minutes away from seeing him again, to talking to him again. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For as long as he had spent thinking about that moment he had no idea what he was going to say or going to do. He had always figured he would have more time to plan once he actually knew it was going to happen. This morning their reunion was a far-away, distant daydream. Now the number of minutes it was away was probably in the single digits. He thought he was going to have more time than a few fucking minutes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All he could think about was what if Klaus didn’t want to see him? What if he wasn’t ever here? Dave knew he’d gotten to his time, but what if he hadn’t got back here? And if he had, how long had it been between his death and when Klaus left? Left Dave’s time. The war. And how long had it been since Klaus got back to this time? God, time travel was fucking confusing sometimes. If Klaus had stayed in Vietnam for a while after Dave died, Dave had missed a lot. Klaus would have had time to move on. Oh god, if Klaus had time to move on from Dave, would he think Dave was weird or creepy for </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> moving on? </span>
  <em>
    <span>Was</span>
  </em>
  <span> Dave creepy for not moving on? Was he Gatsby-ing this? He thought what they had was something neither of them could easily get over, but maybe that was just him? What if Klaus hadn’t been as serious about them as Dave had? Maybe Klaus would still talk to him even if he had moved on? Maybe they could be good friends, they had served together after all. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But it all centered around wondering, no matter how the timeline fell into place, would Klaus want to see him? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He spent so much time lost in that thought that they arrived at the Umbrella Academy sooner than he expected. He still didn’t know what he was going to do. He also didn’t know what he was expecting the Umbrella Academy to look like, but he definitely wasn’t expecting Patch to stop the car in a dingy, grimey back alley. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Umm… are we in the right place?” he asked as Patch undid her seatbelt. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said and pushed her door open. “It’s around the corner. Hargreeves fought the city when the Academy first went public so no one could park on the street in front of them.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The more I learn about that man the more I wanna knock him out,” Dave said and got out of the car. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, he had that effect on everyone,” Patch said with her hands on her hips. They looked at each other and sighed. For a few seconds neither of them moved. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you ready for this?” Dave asked, knowing </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>wasn’t. He saw a look that he would have described as, if it was anyone other than Eudora Patch he saw it on, uncertainty flash across her face for a second. She quickly recovered and started walking. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” she said as they rounded the corner and onto the street. Her honesty took him by surprise, but he appreciated it. “But considering the literal fate of the world is on the line and knowing what I know about this family, I do not want it to be entirely in their hands.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> ready for this,” Dave teased lightly and a car sped past them, blowing dirt onto the sidewalk beneath their feet. “I appreciate the honesty, Patch.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She reached out and shoved him into the iron  gate in front of the Academy. “Shut up, Katz,” she muttered. She looked down at her feet and shook her head, but he could see her smiling. Dave chuckled, but his face fell as they came to a stop outside the Academy. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave looked up the front steps to the door of the Umbrella Academy. There was a large iron decal hanging over a warped glass window in the wooden door. Dave recognized the design as the same umbrella that was tattooed on Klaus’ forearm. He never got the story behind that one, but seeing it on the door made his stomach churn. Luckily, Patch took a step forward and pulled him out of the upsetting thoughts beginning to run though his head. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch knocked on the door. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A moment passed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And another. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And another. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patched raised her hand to knock again, but just as she did the door swung open. Standing on the other side of the space was Five, one hand on the door and the other wrapped around the neck of a bottle. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello,” he said flatly with a smile that Dave considered to be slightly creepy. “Please don’t be trying to trick me and ensure the state of the timeline. I’m already having to keep my siblings from killing each other; it would be incredibly inconvenient if I had to keep you from killing them too.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re not here to kill your family ,” Patch said, then quickly added, “unless they start being assholes,  but that will be just me. No commission would be involved in that.”  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Five looked at her for a few seconds, contemplating her words. Then he nodded his head once and said,” Fair enough.” He stepped aside to let them in. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave looked around, not quite sure what to make of the place. It  was very… cold. Still. Stifling. He hoped it had become like that </span>
  <em>
    <span>after</span>
  </em>
  <span> the group of children that was raised here grew up. He would have been surprised if that was the case, though. He knew too much about old Hargreeves to consider that realistic. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Five turned and walked through an archway into what Dave assumed to be a living room… a very big living room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t be assholes and they won’t kill you,” Five announced. Dave and Patch looked at each other, sighed, and followed Five into the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’ll be hard for Luther,” the person Dave recognized from the pictures as Diego muttered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up, Diego,” a literal giant snarled across the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You tried to lock Vanya in a cage then minutes ago!” Diego accused. A woman with a bandage wrapped around her throat- Allison- glared at the two of them but didn’t say anything. The woman wrapped in Allison’s arm shrunk into herself. Klaus, from where he was sitting on the couch with his head tipped back so he was looking at the ceiling, groaned and dragged a hand down his face. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave looked at him. He was</span>
  <em>
    <span> there</span>
  </em>
  <span>- in person, a few feet away from him. He didn’t look a day older than the day Dave died. He would have guessed just from looking at him, something about the tension in his shoulders, that he was no more than a few days out of the shit. He could see him twitching and flinching the way he did when he wasn’t high enough to block out all the ghosts. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>God, Dave wanted to touch him, a hand on his shoulder or hold his hand, and ask if he was okay. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he didn’t know what any of his family would do if he did, or what </span>
  <em>
    <span>Klaus</span>
  </em>
  <span> would do, and he didn’t want to cause a scene. He had never really liked having a room’s attention, and his time at The Commission had done nothing to ease the anxiety that came with those situations. All eyes on him in The Commission meant being discovered- being compromised- and good things rarely happened to agents who were compromised. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Dave finally tore his eyes away from Klaus, he saw Patch was standing with Diego.  She was talking to him softly, and his eyes were wide as he looked at her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, I still don’t understand exactly what’s going on,” Luther said. Diego turned from Patch to glare at him. Klaus stood up, hands still over his eyes, and turned around. Of course, he drops his hands </span>
  <em>
    <span>after</span>
  </em>
  <span> he turns away from Dave. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m too goddamn sober for this,” he muttered and walked out of the room. Dave’s ears were ringing as he watched Klaus leave, and suddenly he didn’t care about what the family would think of him. He didn’t care about having all of them looking at him and he hurried after Klaus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, wha-” he heard one of the brothers- probably Luther- start, but he didn’t get to finish. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up,” Patch snapped and another sibling chuckled. Knowing what he did about their family dynamic, Dave thought it was probably Diego. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he didn’t care about any of them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He hurried out behind Klaus, searching the foyer for any sign of which way he went. He found him running up the grand staircase with his hands over his ears. By the time he got to the stairs, Klaus was already hurrying down a hallway on the second floor. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Klaus!” he called out as he took the stairs two at a time. He walked down the hallway he’d seen Klaus turn to . There were doors on one side of the hallway, and Dave took a few steps so he was standing in front of the only one that was closed. He took a deep breath and knocked before he had time to overthink it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nothing happened for a moment, but then he heard a groan and Klaus’ voice through the door. “Oh my god, I’m gonna help as soon as you assholes get your shit together, but until then leave me alone!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave took another step toward the door and knocked again softly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Klaus, can you open the door?” he asked softly, so softly he wasn’t sure Klaus would even hear him. Apparently he did though, because a few seconds later he heard shuffling and footsteps approaching the door. Then the door opened and-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was Klaus looking right at him,</span>
  <em>
    <span> seeing</span>
  </em>
  <span> him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave was so wrapped up in the fact that Klaus was looking at him again that he almost missed it when he spoke. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dave?” he asked. His eyes were open wide and his lips were quivering. He was still wearing his green army jacket that he’d ripped the sleeves off of almost as soon as he got it. He had it on over a striped tank top, and the way he was standing with one hand on the door he’d just opened Dave could clearly see his own dog tags hanging from his neck. “Dave you’re here?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Dave said whispered with a nod. His voice was close to breaking and his eyes began to sting. He knew he wasn’t far from tears. Klaus looked absentmindedly down at his hands. “No,” Dave said quietly and took a step toward Klaus. “It’s not… it’s not like that.” Before he could think about it, he reached out and took Klaus’ hands in his own. Klaus gasped and looked down at their hands then quickly back up at Dave. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh my god,” he said, his voice breaking as he brought his hands up to Dave’s face, cupping his cheeks. “Dave, oh my god,” he cried and pulled Dave into a hug by his shoulders. He buried his face in his chest and held on tight. Dave just wrapped his arms around him and rested his head on his shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then suddenly  Klaus pulled away and looked up at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, how-” he started, but he was cut off by another voice from inside the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Five did say the commission has their ways,” it said. Klaus didn’t react to the speaker, but Dave’s eyes snapped to the room over Klaus’ shoulder. Klaus did react to </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span>, and turned to follow his gaze. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was somebody sitting on the bed in the corner of the room wearing dark pants and a dark jacket. He was surrounded by a blue light that seemed to be coming from </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Then suddenly he was gone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you hear him?” Klaus asked as his eyebrows furrowed and he looked at the bed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Dave said and looked back down at Klaus, whose eyes were still wide as he looked at him. “Saw him for a second, too.” Klaus looked back and forth between Dave and where the figure was sitting on the bed seconds before. He pulled his hands away from Dave’s neck and ran them through his hair. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh my god,” he said. His eyes were still wide, but now they looked more crazed rather than vulnerable like they had been when Dave walked in. He turned and looked around the room, eyes glazing as he got overwhelmed. His breathing became more quick and erratic. “Oh my god there’s so much happening.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave removed his arms from around Klaus' waist and gently reached for his hands. He slowly and lightly pulled them from his hair. Klaus looked at him and Dave remembered what he did back in Vietnam whenever Klaus got overwhelmed and started to drift away. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, hey,” he said, pulling a hand away from Klaus’ and brushing a few stray hairs out of his face. “Come on, talk me through it, what’s going on?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Klaus looked Dave directly in the eyes as he answered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I guess I really am getting sober,” he said. It took Dave’s brain a moment to connect the dots between the blue man and Klaus’ sobriety. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was that a-” he didn’t even have to finish, he just moved onto the next question when Klaus nodded. “Who is that? Is that Ben?” He lowered his voice a little in case he was wrong so the ghost in question couldn’t hear his guess at his identity. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah,” Klaus said with a nod. “That’s Ben.” Dave nodded and looked around the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi Ben,” he said. “I can’t see you right now so I’m not sure if I’m looking in the right place, but hi.” Klaus laughed a bit and tried to hold back a smile. “What?” Dave asked. “How did I fuck that up?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, no you didn’t,” Klaus said and shook his head and took a step toward Dave. “He thought it was very nice. I was just very… you.” Dave sighed and wrapped his arms around Klaus again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I missed you, Klaus,” he whispered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How long has it been for you?” Klaus asked cautiously. Dave could tell by his voice and the way he stiffened in his arms that asking the question made him nervous. “I know things can get fucked up with this time travel shit.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, about a year, year and a half,” Dave sighed. Klaus stilled even more but Dave kept going, hoping the two of them talking things out would continue to calm him down. “I know you left this time about when Patch died, but how long have you been back here?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Klaus pulled back and stood on his own weight. He rubbed a hand under his eyes, smearing eyeliner along the rest of his face. Dave’s own vision blurred as he realized Klaus was crying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s been about three days,” he said with a sniffle, looking over Dave’s  shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Three days?” Dave repeated. “You’ve been out of the shit for three days?” Klaus just nodded and looked at the floor. He had guessed so earlier just from looking at him, but hearing it confirmed made his stomach churn and his skin crawl. He was three days out of everything he’d been though, and he was sitting in the living room listening to his siblings yell? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I left right after,” Klaus added, so quiet Dave almost missed it. He opened his mouth to ask after </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but then it hit him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh god,” he said, and without thinking about it pulled Klaus into another crushing hug. Klaus put his face on his shoulder and started sobbing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You died,” he cried, his entire body shaking as he did. “You died and I didn’t do anything.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Klaus, Klaus, baby, there was nothing you </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> do,” Dave said, his own tears spilling down his face. He tightened his arms around Klaus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I should have-” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>No</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Dave said firmly and cradled the back of Klaus’ head with his hand. “You shouldn’t ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>have’</span>
  </em>
  <span> anything. You did enough. You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>alive</span>
  </em>
  <span>. You got out of there. That’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>enough</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I love you, Dave,” Klaus said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I love you too, Klaus,” Dave replied. “So, </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> much.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t have to-” Klaus started, but cut himself off and started again. “If it’s been that long I don’t expect-” This time it was Dave that cut him off. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mm-mm, no,” he hummed. “None of that Klaus. The only thing that got me through that year and a half was the idea that you </span>
  <em>
    <span>might</span>
  </em>
  <span> want to see again when all of it was over.” Klaus pulled him in closer and Dave pressed a light kiss to his temple. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They stood like that, silently holding each other, for a few moments until someone came up behind them and knocked on the doorframe. Klaus looked up to see over Dave’s shoulder and Dave loosened his grip on Klaus to turn around, but left one arm around his shoulders. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Diego was standing in the hallway looking slightly uncomfortable. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Luther and Five are about to lose their shit if everyone doesn’t get to the living room,” he said. He sounded like he </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> didn’t want to be the one telling them this, and Dave didn’t really know what to make of that. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” Klaus said and pulled away and wiped at his eyes again. “We’ll be down in a minute.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” Diego said with a nod and turned to walk away. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dave turned back to Klaus and gently took his face in his hands. He ran a hand through his hair as he spoke. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We should probably get down there,” he said softly. Klaus looked up and nodded. Dave’s hands fell down to the nape of Klaus’ neck. Neither of them moved. They just stood there and looked at each other. </span>
  <em>
    <span>God,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Dave wanted to kiss him before they had to go back to the mess that was waiting for them downstairs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I…” Dave asked when it felt right. He didn’t even have to finish asking, Klaus was already nodding. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“God, please,” he said, and Dave closed the space between them and kissed him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’d better get going,” Dave said a moment later when he pulled away. Leaving this room was the last thing he wanted to do at that moment, but he knew he didn’t really have a choice. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Klaus sighed. Dave reached down and took Klaus’ hands in his own again. He brought them up to his lips and pressed a chaste kiss to his knuckles. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They didn’t say anything as they left the room and made their way down the hallway hand in hand. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Waiting for the door to open was nerve wracking. Patch didn’t like it. She wanted to get inside and figure out what the hell was going on. She wanted to know why they were there. She wanted to figure out exactly how fucked up this family was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And yes, she wanted to see Diego. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was weird, knowing she was back in her own time. Of course, she had known she was in her own time before, but until right now it was still an assignment. If she was smart she wouldn’t have seen anyone from her old life, but now here she was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Standing on her ex’s doorstep waiting for the door to open. Waiting for The Umbrella Academy. It was all hitting her now. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had never been able to picture this, being back. She wasn’t like Katz. She didn’t have a plan. She hadn’t been thinking about this for the year they had been working together. She didn’t have any real expectations for how anything like this could go. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And she didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She could feel the nervous energy radiating from Katz. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> been thinking about this. He knew how he wanted this to go, but was probably now realizing things might not unfold that way. He hadn’t said anything, but she knew him well enough to hear what was running through his mind. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How was he going to do this? Would Klaus want to see him?</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>She wanted to say something to comfort him, but she didn’t know Klaus the way he did. The Klaus she had known wasn’t the same one he had. He had changed with Katz, and it seemed like it was for the better. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was getting ready to knock again when the door finally opened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello,” Five said with a smile she recognized from news coverage before he disappeared. “Please don’t be trying to trick me and ensure the state of the timeline. I’m already having to keep my siblings from killing each other; it would be incredibly inconvenient if I had to keep you from killing them too.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re not here to kill your family ,” Patch said. Fragments of stories from her time with Diego and some of his more stupid stunts resurfaced in her mind. She quickly added, “Unless they start being assholes,  but that will be just me. No commission would be involved in that.”  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Five looked at her, she looked right back. Then he nodded his head once and said, “Fair enough.” He stepped away from the entrance so they could enter the house. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch’s first thought was that she hated it. It was so… </span>
  <em>
    <span>Reginald Hargreeves</span>
  </em>
  <span>. In the worst way possible. It was- </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her thoughts were cut short when they followed Five through an archway and into the living room, where all the living siblings were waiting for them. Where Diego was waiting for her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t be assholes and they won’t kill you,” Five said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Diego’s eyes didn’t leave Patch as he said, “That’ll be hard for Luther.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up, Diego,” Luther snarled. He was much bigger than she remembered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You tried to lock Vanya in a cage then minutes ago!” Diego finally looked away from Patch as he spun around to face Luther. God this family was </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucked</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The whole family started throwing glares at each other, and Patch realized she didn’t have enough energy to care about why. Keeping up with this family was too much work. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before she knew what she was doing, she was taking a step toward Diego and putting a hand on his arm. He whipped around, and he must have thought she was one of his siblings, because his eyes widened as soon as he saw her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” she whispered. His eyes softened as she spoke. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi,” he said. She opened her mouth to ask what exactly had happened in the days she’d been gone, but someone else spoke first. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay, I still don’t understand exactly what’s going on,” Luther said. Diego turned away to glare at him. He wasn’t able to say anything either, though. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m too goddamn sober for this,” Klaus said suddenly and left the room. Why was he leaving the room? What about Katz? She looked over at her partner just in time to see him take a step to follow Klaus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, wha-” Luther started when he realized he was leaving. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up,” Patch snapped. She knew she probably shouldn’t have, but she knew what this meant to Katz and she wasn’t letting someone who didn’t understand fuck this up for him. It already wasn’t like she knew he had been hoping it would. He was gone by the time Luther recovered from Patch snapping at him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What exactly is going on here?” he asked in a tone that demanded an answer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Far too much,” Patch responded. “That’s why we’re here trying to figure it out.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luther’s eyes hardened and his lips pressed into a thin line in irritation. “So you  don’t know anything either,” he accused. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Diego hissed and pointed a finger at him, but  suddenly Five flashed into existence right in between them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Both of you </span>
  <em>
    <span>shut up</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he demanded. “We’re all here to figure this out, not tear each other apart.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Patch could see Diego was clenching his jaw. He took a deep breath, and Patch gently nudged his arm to get his attention. He looked back at her and she tilted her head as a gesture for them to walk away. He looked back at his brothers then back at her and nodded. Luther glared at them as they walked back into the foyer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were silent for a while, even after they came to a stop in front of the stairs. Neither of them really knew what to say, where to start. Patch was about to skip anything else and ask what he knew about what was going on, better be sure they were alive in 24 hours and have any awkward conversations once they knew there would be a point in having them, but-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he said, staring down at his shoes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” she asked, thrown off by his words. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you f- f- fo-” he started but snapped his mouth shut when the words refused to leave his mouth. He closed his eyes, pursed his lips, exhaled, and tried again. “Thank you for helping Klaus,” he managed. “That night at the motel.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She tilted her head and gave him a small smile. “Of course,” she said. “Helping people is wh- </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> what I did.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He furrowed his eyebrows and gave her a curious look. “What do you mean </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She sighed and looked away from his face. “Unfortunately… I’ve changed a lot since then. I don’t think I do much real </span>
  <em>
    <span>helping</span>
  </em>
  <span> anymore.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well,” Diego started slowly, clearly not wanting to upset her, which was a new development. “If you think it’s unfortunate, you can’t have changed that much.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looked at him again and gave him another small smile. “I hope you’re right.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I think I am,” he said and returned the smile. “If you give a shit what I think.” Her smile grew. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Suddenly Five was standing next to them. Both Diego and Patch jumped, and the next second Luther came walking out of the living room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good,” Luther said. “You two are here.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We need to figure out what is going on here,” Five said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where are Klaus and the other guy?” Luther asked. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Upstairs, probably,” Diego said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, we need them,” Five said and Luther went to take a step up the stairs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eh, eh, eh,” Diego said and took a step in his way, putting a hand up to stop him. “I’ll go. You stay here.” Luther looked like he wanted to argue, but decided against it. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine,” he said instead and turned around to go back to the living room. Five disappeared a second later. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” Diego said. “We’ll be down in a minute.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay,” Patch said. She turned back to the living room and he turned to go up the stairs. At the last second, though, she turned around and called to him. “Oh, and Diego.” He stopped and turned back around to face her from a few steps up. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. “I do give a shit,” she finished with a smirk. He returned it, and with that, they both turned to walk away. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>and remember you can always come talk to me about tua on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de !! (and by that i mean pleeeeeaaaasssse come talk to me about tua on tumblr)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>eyy look at me with a new update in 2 weeks go me. <br/>and it's even longer than the last one</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Everyone go over everything you know,” Five demanded when they were all back in the living room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The siblings and their guests were scattered around the living room Five had led Dave and Patch into when they first arrived at the house. Klaus and Dave sat together on one of the couches and Allison and Vanya sat on the other. Five, Luther, Diego, and Patch all stood, despite the fact that there were two unoccupied seats next to an empty fireplace. Luther sent a few confused looks in Klaus and Dave’s direction, most likely questioning why they were sitting so close to each other. He must not have found it important enough though, because he didn’t say anything. Dave looked over at Klaus, whose thigh was pressed against his own. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He looked back at the rest of the group when Patch started talking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Vanya,” she said simply and looked at the woman in question. “The only thing we got were orders to protect her and kill the rest of you.” Judging by the lack of reaction, Dave figured Five had already shared that information with his siblings. Patch must have thought the same thing, because she continued. “We were hoping you guys would have something to share too.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The family looked at each other slightly uncomfortably. Luther opened his mouth to speak, but Five beat him to it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” he started and turned Patch’s not-quite-a-question. “When I went missing I actually time travelled to some time in the future after the apocalypse. I survived for years on my own before the commission found me. I worked for them for a while before coming back here and trying to stop the end of the world. He said all this like he was bored of it all. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Patch said and crossed her arms over her chest. “Before you flashed away from the department store you said something about Vanya causing it. Care to elaborate on that?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vanya curled in on herself even more, which caused Allison to shoot a look capable of killing in Patch’s direction, but it did nothing since Patch’s attention was fixed on Five. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Vanya has powers,” Five said coolly. Dave didn’t consider that too far out there; wasn’t the point of the Academy that all of them had powers? Apparently, though, Patch wasn’t expecting that. She looked between Five and Vanya with her mouth wide open. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bu- wha-” she floundered. Five continued, which Dave thought was probably a good thing for Patch by cutting off her stunned stuttering. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She met a guy, Harold Jenkins, and somehow he got her to discover her powers. The instability of her powers is what was going to be the end of the world.,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch blinked. And blinked again. She looked back at Vanya and shook her head. She took a step back and sank into one of the empty chairs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How does your family continue to get more and more fucked up?” she asked and put her head in her hands with her elbows on her knees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on, I think I’m missing something here,” Dave said and leaned forward from his seat on the couch. He looked at Vanya as he continued. “I thought the whole thing here was powers? Why are yours so shocking?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t have them as a kid,” Vanya answered timidly. “I wasn’t part of the Academy.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your brother said you met this guy, Harold Jenkins,” he started, and continued when Vanya nodded, confirming he’d remembered the name Five said a moment before correctly. “What exactly does he have to do with all of this?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He knew about my powers,” she said. She opened up as she spoke, obviously becoming more comfortable talking to Dave. It occurred to him then that it might have been the first time any of them actually asked </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> what happened. He knew from Klaus’ vague stories back in Vietnam that the family wasn’t too great at talking to each other, but getting the whole story from Vanya as well seemed like a pretty basic place to start when trying to figure out how to stop the end of the world. “He wanted me to learn to use them.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did he know about them?” Dave continued quickly when he was Five open his mouth out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to get as much as he could from Vanya. He felt like that would help them see the whole puzzle, and he was proven right when siblings all looked at each other. They hadn’t bothered to ask that question, and now they were obviously wondering the same thing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He had this notebook,” she said and shook her head. “It was Dad’s. It had his notes about all of us in it.” She looked around at her siblings to indicate he had notes on the whole family. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is it now?” Luther asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did he get it?” Dave asked at the same time. The two looked at each other. It soon became a staring match, one Dave refused to lose. After a moment Luther looked away uncomfortably. Satisfied, Dave looked back at Vanya and repeated his question. “How did he get your dad’s notebook?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh fuck,” Klaus said suddenly at his side. Dave looked over at him in time to see him put his hands over his eyes and fall back against the couch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Five demanded, speaking for the first time since Vanya started answering Dave’s questions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That might have been me,” Klaus said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you talking about, Klaus?” Luther added as if Klaus’ contributions meant nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus answered as if Luther wasn’t obviously annoyed by him saying anything. “The first day back I found a nice box of some of Dad’s stuff,” he said and moved his hands away from his face. “I emptied it in the trash and pawned the box.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Luther’s face turned red. “Klaus, are you kidding me?” he growled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pogo gave me shit about </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the box being ‘incredibly valuable’ or some other shit like that,” Klaus continued as if Luther hadn’t said anything. “Guess we know what </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> was now.” He rubbed his eyes again and leaned forward. “Anyway, I went back to look for it the next day and it was already gone.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait,” Five said and turned toward their couch with his hands in his pockets. “Is that why you were digging around in the dumpster the other days?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yeah</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Klaus groaned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is wrong with you, Klaus?” Luther growled and ran his hands through his hair. Dave turned and glared at him, but Luther wasn’t even looking in their direction. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you don’t wanna open that door,” Klaus laughed next to him. Dave nudged him gently with his leg and looked over at him. Klaus nodded but didn’t say anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, what?” Diego asked and looked around at them with his arms crossed over his chest. “Jenkins dug around in our trash looking for some of Dad’s crap?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds like the kind of fucked up thing that happens here,” Patch said and leaned back in her chair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s ri-i-ight,” Klaus said in a half kind of sing-song voice. Luther glared at him again but didn’t say anything. Dave turned back to Vanya. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So this guy wanted you to learn to control your powers?” he asked her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she   said. “I didn’t really understand how he knew any of the stuff he was saying, but now that I know he had the notebook it all makes sense. He kept making me practice them even though I wanted to practice for-” she suddenly stopped talking and she sat up straight, eyes wide. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Dave asked, sitting up himself. The rest of the family became alert as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just wanted to practice for the recital tonight,” Vanya said and looked around at her siblings, and stopped when her eyes landed on Allison. “I’m first chair.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allison’s face lit up. She smiled the biggest smile Dave had seen on her face so far as she looked at Vanya. Her eyes were shining as the smile reached them. She took Vanya’s hand and squeezed it, and Dave could see Vanya squeeze back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, well, obviously you can’t do that,” Luther cut in as if Vanya and Allison weren’t having an obviously much needed sibling moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone but Five whipped around to stare at him, some in shock and some in anger. Vanya looked scared and Klaus, Diego and Patch were obviously surprised Luther would cut the moment short like that. Allison looked angry enough that Dave wouldn’t have been surprised to see smoke coming from her ears like he saw in cartoons when he was a kid, and he had to admit he wasn’t too happy about Luther’s attitude either. The only one who seemed to understand where he was coming from was Five, but even he looked like he didn’t really agree. Instead, he was looking at Vanya with a soft expression. He pursed his lips and turned away to look at Luther. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think that’s necessary,” he said, but he didn’t look entirely convinced. Luther didn’t either. Everyone waited with eyebrows raised to hear what else Five had to say. “She obviously shouldn’t go alone since no one really understands her powers, but I don’t think we should stop her from going entirely.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Luther hissed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Re-Really?” Vanya asked. Five sighed and took a moment to consider his words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do, but obviously we aren’t very good at doing the smart thing,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s for sure,” Patch muttered under her breath, but Five continued as if she hadn’t said anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Besides,” he said and gave Vanya a small, bittersweet smile. “It’s obviously important to you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But-” Luther started, and Five turned on him sharply. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Luther, Vanya spent her entire life wishing to be a part of this with us,” he said. “She wrote her book and caused drama between all of you, and then she finds out she </span>
  <em>
    <span>does</span>
  </em>
  <span> have powers, and she wants to practice the violin for a recital. That recital is clearly important.” Dave watched Vanya as her brother defended her. Her eyes were shining as she looked up at him from her seat on the couch. “I survived the apocalypse to come back here to make sure y’all get to live your long, full, stupid lives, and this is part of her life.” Allison removed her arms from where they were still wrapped around Vanya and clapped lightly. Luther looked over at her, and seemed to finally give in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” he said. “But she doesn’t go alone.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I actually,” Vanya said softly and looked around the room before she continued. “I actually got tickets for all of you.” Her eyes bounced between Dave and Patch and quickly added, “Well, for the family.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Klaus asked as his eyes widened. A small smile tugged at his lips when Vanya looked over at him and nodded. Dave loved seeing that particular smile on Klaus’ face- it was the one he had when he was truly touched by something but was trying to hide it. It was the one he tried to hide when the guys back in Vietnam would laugh at his jokes or call him their friend or their brother. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, so what do we do about the extra two?” Five asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think an extra person or two could watch from the wings,” Vanya said. “And if that doesn’t work for some reason I know that theatre well enough I could try to find a place for the extras.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you could get two of us backstage that would probably be best,” Five said with a tilt of his head. “Keep some of us closer to you in case something goes wrong.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, okay,” Vanya said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Apparently everyone else was in agreement was well, because no one said anything. They all looked around at each other like they expected someone else to start. Finally Dave broke the silence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what time is the show?” he asked Vanya. Her face dropped a little before she responded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Very soon.” </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next few minutes were chaotic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Vanya had to go back to her apartment to change and grab her violin, and half the group went with her. Allison because she refused to let Vanya out of her sight; Five because he wanted to be sure she was with someone who could talk to get help if something happened; Patch because she wanted to be sure someone other than one of the Hargreeves siblings was in the group; Diego because he… wanted to be around Patch? Didn’t want to be around Luther? Dave wasn’t entirely sure, but it left him at the mansion with Klaus and Luther for a little more time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the first group left, the ones who needed to change grabbed clothes from somewhere in the house. Allison grabbed an old outfit and quickly returned to Vanya’s side. Patch decided her Commission work outfit was good enough and didn’t leave the foyer. Five also decided his current clothes, that seemed to be a private school uniform, was good enough. Diego left his black pants and shirt, but pulled a blazer from one of the rooms and put it on over his shirt and the holsters strapped to his chest. When questioned about possibly needing to hide all the knives on his person, he responded with: “I’ll button it up.” No one argued with him, possibly because of all the knives on his person. (At least, that’s why Dave decided not to question him.)</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not long after the first group left, both Luther and Dave were hanging around the foyer waiting for Klaus. Dave took a seat on the bottom step of the staircase after finding an old shirt of one of the brother’s to change into. Luther seemed to be getting more and more restless as the seconds passed. He was pacing back and forth from one wall to another, curling his hands into fists only to shake them out again a few seconds later. Eventually Dave couldn’t take the silence anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you worried about your sister?” he asked. Luther looked over at him but didn’t stop pacing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he said. “I should be there with her, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>them</span>
  </em>
  <span>. I’m Number One not Klaus’ babysitter.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave furrowed his eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m Number One,” Luther repeated and went back to watching the  floor as he moved. “I’m the leader. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> supposed to be making the plan and sticking with the target to make sure they don’t cause trouble.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Target?” Dave questioned Number One’s choice of words. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Vanya,” he said. “She’s dangerous, I should be with her.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wha- </span>
  <em>
    <span>Dangerous</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Dave said with a shake of his head. “She’s your sister.” Dave understood not being on great terms with your family, but he was starting to reach Patch’s level of understanding about how fucked up this one was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She was never a part of this. When we were kids-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Dave interrupted. “When you were </span>
  <em>
    <span>kids</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He rested his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “But you’re not anymore. You’re adults. You aren’t relying on your dad and you’re living your own lives.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I… They…” Luther trailed off and didn’t finish his thought. Dave thought he got it anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>From what he understood, most of the siblings had left on their own as they got older. First Five disappeared, then Ben died, and the rest of them had left not long after that. Except Luther. Dave could see that he believed their father and he believed in what they were doing, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The bad thing was his attitude towards the rest of his siblings’ decisions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t get that,” Dave said softly. Luther looked at him and finally stopped pacing. “You didn’t get the moving on to a life away from your father until you were forced to when he died. And now that he’s now here you can see that he wasn’t good, right?” Luther looked away from him and looked down at his shoes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I spent four years on the moon for nothing,” he said softly. Dave could practically see a part of him breaking as he said it. “I sent him everything he asked for and he never even opened my messages.” Dave pushed down the anger beginning to bubble inside of him on Luther’s behalf and continued. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can’t be upset that they saw through him and his bullshit and got away as fast as they could,” he said cautiously. Luther’s jaw set but he didn’t say anything. Dave sighed and shook his head. He closed his eyes before he continued. “I get it man, I feel like I’m saying this all wrong, but I get where you’re coming from,” he said and opened his eyes. “This </span>
  <em>
    <span>sucks</span>
  </em>
  <span> for you. But you have to understand that it sucked for them too.” Luther blinked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They just seem so… carefree,” he said softly. Dave gave him a sympathetic nod and small smile.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll get there,” he said earnestly. “They were all where you are once, just realizing how wrong he was.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You really think so?” Luther questioned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I think so,” Dave said and leaned back so he was resting a hand on the step above the one he was sitting on and leaning on that arm. “I think you guys would stop being such a fucking mess if you just talked to each other.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Maybe,” Luther said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I also think you all need so much fucking therapy,” Dave added lightly. “I really hope you guys are planning on sinking a good chunk of your inheritance money on a decent therapist.” Luther looked at him with an unimpressed expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m gonna go get in the van,” he said. “You and Klaus meet me there when he’s finally ready.” And with that, he walked off through the door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave heaved out a sigh, hoping he hadn’t fucked things up even more. He didn’t get long to think about it, though, because a minute or two later he heard hells clicking toward the staircase from the floor above him. He looked up in time to see Klaus turn and take his first few steps down the stairs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus was making his way down the stairs in a black skirt and a dark purple top that flowed off of his shoulders. The skirt fell a little past his knees and Dave could see the small black heels on his feet. The top was very loose but didn’t quite cover his entire torso, so it bounced a little with every step and Dave could see a small strip of skin above the waistline of the skirt. It reminded him of the outfit he was wearing that night at the disco in Vietnam. Reminded him of Klaus fiddling with a loose threat at the waistline before Dave kissed him, of slamming the motel door shut just a little too loudly and practically ripping the shirt off him later that night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave stood up from the step and turned around to actually face Klaus. He knew he must have looked ridiculous, standing there with his jaw on the floor and eyes wide and hands resting limply at his side, but he didn’t care enough to do anything but look at Klaus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Klaus asked innocently, but something told Dave he knew exactly </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just…” Dave didn’t even finish, just cuts himself off with a shake of his head. “I just forgot how </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking beautiful</span>
  </em>
  <span> you are.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span> Klaus smiled and took another step so he was on the last step right in front of Dave. He could see the glint from the light on a chain that fell under the fabric of his shirt. Dave knew the same thing could be visible on his chest from Klaus’ dog tags. Dave leaned toward him and gently put a hand on the back of his neck. Klaus smiled into the kiss and put his arms on Dave’s shoulder as he leaned into him. Dave moved his hands so they were resting on Klaus’ hips. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They both pulled back after a long moment and just smiled at each other and </span>
  <em>
    <span>god</span>
  </em>
  <span> this is what Dave wanted. This is what he planned laying next to Klaus in bed at a shitty motel room or a cot over. He wanted to just stand like a dork staring at Klaus like he couldn’t really believe he existed even though they were probably running late to something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh fuck,” Dave said aloud to his own though. “Luther’s waiting in the car. We should probably get going.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus pursed his lips and Dave could feel his hands twitching. He bit the side of his cheek in consideration before he spoke. It made Dave nervous because Klaus almost never thought before he spoke unless it was something he was really nervous about. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There was actually something I wanted to ask you before we go,” he settled on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Dave said. “Everything okay?” A second later he added, “Other than the whole possible end of the world thing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, um, I guess it’s kind of about that,” Klaus said and took his arms off Dave’s shoulders. “So I guess I wanna ask in case we can’t actually stop this.” Dave nodded and left his hands on Klaus’ waist. “So, you know how things were when we met and how we had to be,” he continued slowly. “Well, it’s not really like that any more. I mean like, we can go places </span>
  <em>
    <span>together</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so I guess I was just wondering if you wanted to do that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Klaus are you asking me out?” Dave chuckled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Klaus said with a nod. “Yes, I am. That’s exactly what I’m doing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave chuckled and nodded. “Sounds great,” he said and kissed him again. “We’d better go.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Klaus said and took a step past Dave. He turned back to look at him and held out a hand, which Dave took and they started walking. “I am excited to see Vanya play,” he said as they walked through the house. “I haven’t heard her since we were kids. I’m glad we’re getting to go to this.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Dave said, happy to be going anywhere with Klaus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made their way to the car just like that, hand in hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch looked around as their group arrived at the Icarus theater. Diego was the only one not trying to go in with Vanya. Allison refused to leave her side, and Vanya could only get two of them backstage with her, so Patch and Five were left to argue over who was going in. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I have a better grasp  on the situation, I should go with them,” Five said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry but someone who isn’t a member of your family needs to be close to her, you guys obviously do not have the best control over anything,” Patch countered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you don’t trust our family,” Five scoffed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, not really,” Patch said coolly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not winning an argument with her, man,” Diego laughed from behind her. Five glared at him over her shoulder. He took a step forward and stuck a finger in her face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If anything happens,” he growled. “It’s on you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See, that's another thing,” Patch started and took a step past Five to stand next to the sisters. “You don’t have the backstage personality. You’re quite harsh.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Being harsh kept me alive,” Five responded lowly. He pushed his shoulders back and looked directly at Patch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” she said softly. “I know.” His expression softened for a short second, but he quickly corrected his expression. He gave Patch a small nod and turned around to find the front entrance of the theater. Diego’s eyes swept over the group and he pursed his lips. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Be careful,” he said before he turned and followed Five. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch turned to face the sisters, almost nervous about it. She had just come in and said their family could fuck off, but she stood by her position of needing someone other than them in the situation. She half expected them to be angry or unsure of her for the way she had handled Five, but Vanya had a small, shy smile on her face and Allison was scribbling furiously on the notepad she brought with her. A moment later she held it up for Patch to see. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘I need as many blackmail stories on Diego as you have.’</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch smirked. “Gladly.” Allison smiled. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The group spent a few minutes getting organized and planning how to handle anything that might happen. As they talked about it, Vanya got more and more nervous. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re gonna be okay,” Patch said. “These are all just precautions.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know,” Vanya said softly. “It’s just weird, me being the one to watch out for right now, ya know?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Patch said. Allison put her hand on Vanya’s shoulder and gave her a small smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Vanya,” another voice hissed from somewhere a few feet away. “Come on, we’re about to start.” Vanya turned toward the voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” she said and turned back to the two of them. “I’d better go.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Break a leg,” Patch said with a smile. Allison nodded as Vanya turned and made her way to the stage. Patch looked over at Allison as she watched her sister find her place. She looked over at her and started scribbling on her notepad again. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘You understand if I want to focus more on her playing than checking for powers or anything?’</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah,” Patch said and shook Allison’s concerns off. They looked back at the stage to see Vanya settle in a seat across the stage facing them, so she could look up and easily see them. “I’ll deal with anything that happens, you just worry about your sister. Allison smiled at her. “You really care about her, don’t you?” she added when she looked back at Vanya settling in her seat. Allison nodded. “Maybe your family isn’t as fucked up as I’ve been saying.” Allison laughed lightly and went back to her notepad. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>‘Oh no, we’re fucked up.’</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch chuckled. “But you’re trying.” Patch herself wasn’t sure if it was a question or a statement. Allison nodded as the lights dimmed and the recital started. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch could see the family a few rows back in the crowd. They all seemed rather invested or proud of their sister’s performance. Even Katz looked like he was enjoying himself, but Patch would guess that had more to do with the fact that Klaus was sitting next to him instead of the orchestra’s performance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Diego and Five weren’t necessarily smiling, but he could see the pride on their faces as they watched their sister perform. Their eyes were glowing with it. Luther looked out of place, like he didn’t really understand what was going on, but she didn’t think he </span>
  <em>
    <span>hated</span>
  </em>
  <span> being there or anything. Klaus, though, was leaning forward in his seat with a wide grin on his face. It made Patch smile to herself to see that there was more to him than the addict the world saw him as since they’d grown up. She saw the Klaus that Katz knew, she could see him in the stories he told from his time at war. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, none of them were comparable to Allison’s joy as she watched her sister play. She had a huge, genuine smile on her face, one Patch had never seen on her face in any of her red carpet events or photoshoots. Her eyes were shining and her entire face was squished together, but she obviously didn’t care. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly her face fell, and Patch quickly moved her attention to Vanya onstage, whose hands were glowing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her hands were fucking glowing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit,” Patch hissed and turned to find Five in the audience. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The entire family’s eyes were wide as they watched Vanya continue to play. Five’s eyes flicked quickly over to Patch then back to Vanya. Nothing else seemed to be happening other than the glowing, and no one in the theater was running and screaming, so Patch decided to give it a second. People slowly began to notice the soft light emitting from the violinist, but then Vanya looked up at them and Patch could see her eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her eyes,they weren’t… </span>
  <em>
    <span>right</span>
  </em>
  <span>. They were a bright, glowing white. Patch looked back at the audience hoping to catch Five’s attention. They needed a distraction. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And they got one, but not from Five. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Armed gunmen bursted into the theater, and everyone scattered. Members of the audience got up and ran screaming  and most of the performers followed a few seconds later. Vanya stayed put though. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch took the opportunity from the chaos to dart onstage and knock Vanya over, and when she looked up everything was still. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, almost everything. The woman with the blond hair and black dress Patch had seen when she first woke up at the Commission was there, and she was walking toward the stage. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>oof this one was fun to write. also, after updating my outline and making some new plans the next chapter will be the last chapter. there's a lot i'm gonna be packing in there and i do have school stuff going on for the next 2-ish weeks, so im not sure when that chapter will be up, just to let you know ahead of time. </p><p>as always, feel free to come talk to me about this fic or tua in general on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de (not incest shippers tho you guys go ahead and block me and be sure i never have to see you)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>okay quick note before you get to it!! you will probably find the fight scene at the beginning underwhelming and im sorry for that but at this point im here to write communication and gay shit so i wanted to get there faster. enjoy!!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Well, Number Five, you sure fucked us up,” The Handler said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch laid very, very still next to Vanya, mentally calculating the chances she could surprise the Handler while she was focused on Five. She couldn’t find Katz or any of the Hargreeves, but judging by the giant strides Five had to take to approach the Handler, she guessed they were probably crouching in the rows. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that so?” Five asked as he took another step. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, you did,” she said. “It took us quite a while to recover from the damage you caused.” Damage? What did Five do to the Commission? “But don’t think we forgot about you,” she added in a sing-song voice type voice that made Patch’s skin crawl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t think I was stupid enough to,” Five shot back. Patch began to see the dynamic between the two, but she didn’t see how it actually</span>
  <em>
    <span> worked</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Obviously the ‘condescending poke at each other’ relationship was what they had now, but there was no way that’s how they worked when Five was still an agent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You still won’t be able to stop it,” The Handler said and took yet another step toward Five. He took another step toward her and crossed his arms over his chest. If either of them took another step Five would have to crane his neck to make eye contact. Patch subtly looked around for anything to use when the inevitable fight broke out. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And why exactly do you want the world to end so goddamn badly?” Five asked. Patch’s eyes snagged on Vanya’s bow. She slowly reached out and plucked it from the violinist’s hand. It had done well enough for her against Allison, so Patch figured at the very least it would be a good enough distraction. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s just how the timeline is supposed to be, Five,” she said with a chilling smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Bullshit</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Five spat. “Stop giving me that timeline bullshit and </span>
  <em>
    <span>tell me</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, well I thought you were smart enough to have figured that out by now, Five,” she said, tone condescending as if she was speaking to an actual child instead of a fully grown man in a teenager’s body. (Patch took a quick moment to wonder to herself </span>
  <em>
    <span>what the fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> her life had become before she was drawn back into their conversation.) “What happens when something that’s supposed to end… </span>
  <em>
    <span>doesn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Five said and raised his shoulders a bit and opened his eyes a little wider, inviting her to continue. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Exactly,” the Handler said and bent at the waist to lean toward Five. Five furrowed his eyebrows. “What happens if a story is over but the book continues, printed  with empty pages?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s harder to get to the author’s notes?” Fives guessed with a shrug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyone can fill them in,” The Handler answered her own question. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you kidding me?” Five hissed. “You want the world to end because you won’t have any power over what would happen if it didn’t?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We have the power to stop it,” The Handler said and took a step backwards, turning her back to the stage. “So why take the risk?” Five took a step to the side so he was facing The Handler- and the stage- from the aisle. Patch saw her chance. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She pushed herself off the floor, slowly to make as little noise as possible. Patch hadn’t seen Five look at her, but he must have because-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re willing to destroy the entire population of the world because you won’t have power over it?” Five’s voice boomed as Patch jumped softly off the stage, Vanya’s bow still in hand. The Handler didn’t seem to notice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, Five, we’re established that,” she said. “No need to repeat yourself.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch crept forward so she was right behind The Handler. She raised the bow in her hand and nodded for Five to know she was about to strike. He pushed his shoulders back before he spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, there was,” he said and Patch sprung into action. She used the hand not holding the bow to roughly grab one of the Handler’s shoulders from behind while the other raised the bow to her neck. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wha-” The Handler gasped as the strings pressed against her throat. “Who-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shut up,” Patch snapped. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Patch?” she gasped when she turned her head enough to catch a glimpse of Patch’s face. “What the hell are you doing here?” The second question came out angrier than the first. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You assholes sent me here,” Patch answered as The Handler struggled against her grip. Patch dug her fingers into her shoulder hard enough for her to gasp in pain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, we didn’t,” she argued. “None of us would </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> send anyone to their own time.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, someone fucked up,” Patch said. She would have accompanied the statement with a shrug if she wasn’t struggling to hold her enough already. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, shit Five,” The Handler said and tilted her head as she looked at him. “This must be even more of your damage. You’re definitely not getting another chance with us.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Five, you’re going to have to tell me exactly what you did later,” Patch laughed, curious as to what possibly could have messed with the Commission’s order that much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of course,” Five said without taking his eyes off The Handler. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you know,” The Handler said. “He-” she cut off suddenly and slammed her elbow into Patch’s gut. Patch stumbled back a step and gasped, which gave the Handler just enough time to squirm out of Patch’s grasp. She made a grab for it, but Patch managed to hold onto the bow. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Handler rushed a few steps forward toward Five in her attempt to get away from Patch. He flashed a few feet so he was behind her and kicked the back of one of her knees. She fell to her knees with a shout but quickly recovered and spun to face them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, so you want to play this game, huh?” she asked and laughed. “You know-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Five ignored her and turned to Patch. She raised her eyebrows to acknowledge him but didn’t take her eyes off The Handler. He held his hand out toward Patch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give me the bow,” he said. She slowly switched the hand she was holding it in and passed it to Five, all without looking away from The Handler. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She still didn’t take her eyes off of her when she saw Katz sneaking into the main theater. She did have to work to keep her confusion out of her expression. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, what? Are you gonna ignore me, Five?” the Handler asked, obvious to the fourth moving member in the room. Katz disappeared from Patch’s peripheral vision and she just had to hope he didn’t enter The Handler’s. “I thought you were much more mature than that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm,” Five hummed. “And what gave you that impression?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She saw Katz on the outside of her vision again. He was walking back toward the exit, but with… a machine gun in each hand? Patch almost looked right at him before she realized he was disarming the gunmen. Holy shit, she thought and fought to keep the smirk off her face. He came back a moment later empty handed. He made a gesture rolling his hands to silently tell them to keep going. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have heard about my siblings, right?” Five added, which made Patch think he saw Katz too. “If they have to be emotionally stunted man-children why should I get out of it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Handler chuckled. “Well, I suppose that reasoning is sound enough.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trust me,” Patch added. “You have no idea.” Katz slipped through the door again and began making his way down the aisle behind the Handler. Not for the first time in the last few minutes, Patch thanked whatever part of the universe that made sure the floors of the theater were carpeted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Handler threw her head back and laughed. “God I can’t wait for this timeline to be over. I’m tired of hearing about you guys.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Five lunged forward and raised the bow in his hand. The Handler simply spun and took a step back, which unfortunately put Katz right in her line of sight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, Katz is here, too?” she asked. “My, what a fun little reunion.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one got another chance to speak, because both Patch and The Handler jumped into action. The Handler moved toward Five, and Patch moved toward her. Patch got a good hit in by shoving The Handler’s side with her shoulder and knocking her into the end of one of the rows of seats. She almost fell over backwards, but managed to use her hands to grab onto the seats behind her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch also lost her balance from the hit, and The Handler saw her opportunity to use a heel clad foot to kick the side of her knee. She didn’t hit her hard enough to cause any real damage, but she did stumble into another row of seats. She landed flat on her back stretched out over a few (now empty) seats, slamming her spine into the hard armrests between the seats and knocking the wind out of her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Handler forced herself onto her feet and began making her way back to Patch, but Five appeared on her back with his arms wrapped around her neck and legs around her waist in a flash of his blue light. It kept The Handler distracted long enough for Patch to catch her breath and stand back up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch stumbled her way across the aisle to Katz, and as soon as she was close enough he grabbed her hand and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of a knife. In the back of her mind she recognized it as one of Diego’s. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get her,” Katz said and held up another knife. “Five!” he shouted. Five looked up at him from The Handler’s back down the aisle. In an instant, Five had flashed to them, grabbed the knife, and flashed back to The Handler. He plunged the knife into her chest and she fell to her knees on the floor. She blubbered and choked on her own blood for a few seconds, and fell all the way to the floor and- </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything fell back into action. Patch, Five, and Katz were all still standing in the aisle, but The Handler’s body was gone. The rest of the audience was still scrambling out of the theater and the gunmen were looking around in confusion since their weapons had suddenly disappeared. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Up on stage, Patch saw Allison rush across the stage to Vanya, who was sitting up and looking around. Patch could see from the rows back that her eyes were back to normal. She threw her arms around Allison as soon as she reached her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus, what the fuck?” Luther’s voice came from one of the rows behind them. Luther and Diego both slowly stood up and looked around, but Klaus shot up and wildly whipped his head around. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dave?” he asked. Katz quickly turned and made his way over to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, hey,” he said and put a hand on his arm. “I’m here, I’m good, okay? I’m sorry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah,” Klaus said with a nod and pursed his lips. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I just-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I know,” Katz said and gently pulled him into a hug. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell?” Vanya asked, suddenly standing behind them with Allison. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We should go,” Five said. “We should get home before we start explaining.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Diego said. Allison and Klaus nodded, and Luther didn’t complain. When no one said anything, Five flashed away and the rest of them turned toward the exit. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>When everyone was gathered in the living room, Five was the first one to speak. Once again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the hell happened up there?” he asked, attention and gaze on Patch, who was sitting on a couch with Allison and Vanya. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” she responded. “All I know is Vanya was playing and her hands started glowing. A few seconds later she looked up and her eyes had changed colors. A few seconds after </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> the gunmen busted in and everyone ran. I took the chance to get Vanya- no offense Vanya, I needed to try to snap you out of whatever was going on.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I understand,” Vanya said, looking at Patch. “We were talking about it before, I knew if something happened you would act, and you did.” Allison nodded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you remember anything after your hands started glowing?” Klaus asked from where he was sitting on one of the couches pressed against Katz. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but in a weird way,” Vanya answered and shook her head with her eyebrows furrowed. “I remember it the same way I remember dreams. It’s all hazy and fuzzy.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, next question,” Diego started. “What the hell happened to the gunmens’ guns? Why did you have my knives?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So our employer-” Five started. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The Commission- place- thingy?” Klaus interrupted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes,” Five answered through his teeth. “There’s one member in particular who oversees the people in our position.” On the word </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> he gestured between Patch, Katz, and himself. “She showed up right after the gunmen did.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What? Who? How?” Luther asked. “We never saw her.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She froze time so we could have our fun little conversation,” Katz said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You weren’t even part of the conversation,” Patch scoffed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>What</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Luther asked at the same time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We worked for an organization that corrects timelines, Luther,” Five said. “What makes you think that’s all they’re capable of?” Luther opened his mouth, but Five continued before he got to say anything. “She came to talk to me about the mess I caused back at the office.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Which you still need to tell me about,” Patch interjected and pointed a finger at Five. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She told me why they want the world to end so badly and we found out why they got sent here,” Five said as if Patch hadn’t said anything. “Then we disarmed the gunmen and killed her.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, Katz disarmed the gunmen and you killed her,” Patch corrected then she turned to Diego. “We did have to grab some of your knives in the fight. Sorry.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Diego said and sat down in one of the seats. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay?” Luther said. “Okay? That’s all you have to say about this?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’s been a long day and I just want it to be over,” Diego said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you kidding me they killed somebody,” Luther said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What exactly do you think happened when you used to throw people out of windows when they were robbing banks, Luther,” Diego said, leaning back against the chair. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They stuck around and haunted me for a few years,” Klaus answered the question that wasn’t directed at him in a painfully fake cheerful voice, punching the air with one fist from where he was leaning against Katz with his eyes closed. Everyone turned to him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Vanya asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, we’re not doin’ this today,” Klaus laughed. He opened his eyes and stood up. “I’m goin’ to bed,” he said. “Diego’s right. This has been a long day.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’m out too,” Diego said and stood up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Luther asked. “We’re just gonna be done? Go to bed?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Diego shrugged. “As long as Vanya doesn’t start freaking out again what could happen?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I will not be freaking out again,” Vanya promised. Diego nodded and pointed a finger at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See,” he said and turned and left. Klaus walked out after him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch watched them go. Diego turned to look at Klaus, who caught up with him as they walked through the archway into the foyer and toward the stairs. She looked at Katz when they disappeared from sight, who was still looking at the space they had just left. She looked over at Five. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So is that it?” she asked. “Are we done?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Five looked around at his siblings before he answered. “I mean… as long as someone stays with Vanya, yes.” Patch nodded as Allison started writing on her notepad again. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’ll stay with her.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Patch said and stood up from her seat on the couch. She gave Allison and Vanya a smile, and Katz also stood up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are you two going to do?” Vanya asked. They both looked at each other. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch knew what Katz wanted. This had been his plan; find Klaus and whatever came after. But what did Patch want? She’d always figured she would know when her time with the Commission was about to be up and she could throw a plan together then. This wasn’t what she expected. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t go back to the Commission, could she? She’d been part of the group that was responsible for one of their highest ranking agent’s- or actual highest ranking agent’s- death. Would she even go back if she could? Probably not, she hated her entire time there, but what else </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> she do? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can stay here if you want,” Five said, seemingly knowing what Patch was thinking. “If you’re gonna try to avoid the Commission, you’re not gonna want to do it alone.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She looked at Katz and smirked, coming up with a plan.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you guys know I have a twin I never talk to?” she asked. Everyone looked at her with confused expressions. “We got in a fight a long time ago and never talk to each other. I never mentioned her because the mere thought of her made my blood boil.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Vanya asked with a sympathetic look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Patch said. Five barked out a laugh. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Think anyone’ll buy it?” he asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Will they have much of a choice?” she countered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll make sure someone sets up some rooms for you guys,” Five said and flashed away. When Patch looked around Katz was laughing, Vanya and Allison were smiling, and Luther just looked confused. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait what?” Luther asked, looking around the remaining group. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If anyone who knew me before sees me I’m gonna say I’m the sister I never talk to, who I made up just now,” she clarified.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” There was silence for a few seconds, and Patch decided she was ready to leave the room. Now that things were calmed down, maybe she could talk to Diego. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’m gonna find a room,” she said and turned to leave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, me too,” Katz said, and they made their way upstairs. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You going to find Klaus?” she asked, looking over at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he said and looked over with a nod. “I didn’t get to everything I wanted to earlier. You?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She knew what he meant, but she looked forward and played dumb. “What do you mean?” They turned down a hallway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know damn well what I mean,” Katz said with a laugh and looked away. He came to a stop outside one of the doors on the right side of the hallway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This Klaus’ room?” she asked softly. Katz nodded. They stood there awkwardly for a minute, and eventually she smiled and gestured for him to go in. He smiled back and raised a hand to knock on the door. As he did, she turned to the other doors in the hallway, trying to figure out which one might have been Diego’s. A muttered response came from Klaus’ room and Dave slipped in the door, leaving Patch alone in the hallway. She set her shoulders and turned to find the right door. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t hard. She could hear movement behind the door immediately after Klaus’ and saw moving shadows in the light coming from underneath the door. Before she could think about it too much, she brought her hand up and knocked on the door. It opened a few seconds later to reveal Diego with a knife in hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, hey,” he said and quickly lowered the knife. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Jesus, did you think something bad happened already?” Patch asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we haven’t exactly gotten a break the last few days,” Diego said and leaned against the doorframe. “So…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So…” Patch should have made a fucking plan. “I actually wanted to talk.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Diego raised his eyebrows. “Really?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Should have made a fucking plan, but because she didn’t she blurts out, “So, Katz and I are staying here.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really?” Diego asked again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” she said. “We can’t exactly go back to the Commission now- we wouldn’t want to if we could- and we figured it was best to stay together with someone else who knows the Commission.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that makes sense,” Diego said and shifted against the doorframe. “Uhh, I actually wanted to talk to you.” When Patch raised an eyebrow he added cautiously, “About that night in the motel.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh.” Patch could feel her shoulder sinking. There was a moment of silence before Diego actually said anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why didn’t you wait?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch sighed, not entirely surprised to hear that question. “I figured I’d waited long enough,” she started. “I didn’t know when or </span>
  <em>
    <span>if</span>
  </em>
  <span> you were even coming, and I just kept thinking… about what they could have been doing to him while I was waiting.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was coming,” Diego said. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Damnit, Eudora I was coming.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Patch smiled sadly. “I know.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Th-then wh- w- </span>
  <em>
    <span>damnit</span>
  </em>
  <span>! Then why didn’t you wait?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just wanted to help!” Patch exploded. She really knew better than to yell at Diego, she really did. She’d never even yelled at him when he showed up at her crime scenes before all this shit, but she couldn’t stop herself this time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because she knew that’s all he ever wanted to do too. He broke the rules and did things he said he wouldn’t do and never listened to anybody else but he did it all </span>
  <em>
    <span>because he wanted to help</span>
  </em>
  <span>. So why wouldn’t he accept it as her answer? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He closed his eyes and sighed. “Eudora-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Diego,” she cut him off. He opened his eyes and looked at her, but quickly broke eye contact when she continued. “Diego, it wasn’t your fault. Yes, I ‘</span>
  <em>
    <span>tried things your way</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ but I knew what I was doing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Diego argued. “You didn’t know about the fucking time travel assassins who had my brother. You-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Diego, I knew I was walking into a situation with a lot of unknowns,” she said firmly. “I knew anything could have happened, and I did it anyway.” She bit her lip, trying to decide if she should say the rest, then decided </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck it</span>
  </em>
  <span>- she’d broken laws, died, become a time traveller, and apparently helped stop the end of the fucking world. She could fucking tell him- “I did it for </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Diego looked her in the eyes again, but quickly looked away. She shook her head and looked down at the floor. Diego didn’t say anything, and neither did Patch. Diego crossed his arms and kept his eyes on the floor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Diego?” Patch finally prompted, hoping she would finally know how to handle this conversation if she knew what he was thinking. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he blurted. “You died and maybe if I’d gotten there faster it wouldn’t have happened.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Diego, </span>
  <em>
    <span>it wasn’t your fault</span>
  </em>
  <span>, okay? You have to understand that,” she said. She reached out and gently put a hand on his cheek to make him look up at her. “Look, I don’t know if I would have gone that far to help anyone else,” she continued honestly. “But that doesn’t make what </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> did </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> fault.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t look away from her, so they stood there. Her hand on his cheek looking right into each other’s eyes, both pretending they weren’t leaning forward until their lips met. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>*****</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave slowly opened the door to Klaus’ room. Klaus turned to him when he stepped inside, looking up from the shirt he’d just taken off still in his hands. He smiled as Dave closed the door behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, Davey,” he said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus took a few steps backwards and sat on his bed. The bed was raised slightly so Klaus’ feet didn’t quite touch the floor. The skirt he was still wearing swished around his legs as he swung them back and forth. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, me and Patch were just talking to Five about what we’re gonna do now,” Dave started and took a step toward him, expression uncertain and worried. Klaus went still and his face fell. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you leaving?” he asked, looking at Dave with wide eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” Dave said quickly and rushed forward the last few steps to Klaus. “No, we’re gonna stay here.” Klaus’ eyes softened and his lips turned to a small, hopeful smile. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” he asked when Dave’s expression remained the same. “Dave, what’s wrong?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Dave laughed. “I don’t know, I’m nervous but I don’t know why I’m nervous.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus folded his legs and tucked his feet beneath his knees. He put an elbow on his knee and rested his chin in the palm of his hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I make you nervous, Davey?” he asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, no,” Dave shook his head. “There’s just… a lot. I’m not really sure how to handle it.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just talk to me, Dave,” Klaus said and held out his hands. Dave quickly took them in his own then brought them to his lips and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. He looked back up at Klaus and let out a soft laugh. “What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I just wasn’t sure I’d ever actually see you again,” Dave said. “Then here you are, right in front of me. Better than I could possibly imagine.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh really?” Klaus laughed lightly and leaned closer to Dave. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I was just… really worried,” Dave started, letting go of one of Klaus’ hands and reaching up with his now-free hand to brush stray hairs out of Klaus’ face. “That all that time when I only had memories of you, that I was just making stuff up. That the you I remembered wasn’t really the real </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>, I guess.” Dave pursed his lips and looked down at where his hand was still holding Klaus’. “I don’t know, it’s silly I guess.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus pulled one of his hands from Dave’s and lifted it to his cheek, making him look back up. “Anything you’re worried about isn’t silly,” he said. “Come on, what is it?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave sighed. “I just worried I was being weird or creepy or something, thinking of you so much to get me through everything. Because I really did. Thought about how I would find you, what I would say to explain, hoping you might want me to stay with you.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always,” Klaus whispered, looking up at Dave with wide eyes. “Wherever I was, if you showed up I’d never let you leave again.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave smiled. “I love you so much, Klaus.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I love you, too,” Klaus said. Dave pursed his lips, contemplating saying what else he was thinking. Klaus saw right through him. “What?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave sighed and shook his head. “I guess I’m just worried that I changed too much during all this.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?” Klaus asked and gently grabbed his other hand again. Dave looked down at their hands as he continued. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I did a lot of bad things at the Commission,” he started. “Patch didn’t like doing that stuff either and we figured out ways to do our job without doing </span>
  <em>
    <span>as many</span>
  </em>
  <span> of those kinds of things, but we still had to do them. I don’t know how to go back to life after that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I understand,” Klaus said and Dave looked back up at him. He was nodding his head with a soft expression on his face. “It’s definitely not the same, but I’ve been thinking the same things about myself after the war. It’s been so crazy the last few days I haven’t really gotten to think about it much, but I don’t know if I can go back.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave leaned down and pressed his forehead to Klaus’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll figure it out, right?” Dave said. Klaus smiled and nodded against Dave’s face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he said. Dave pulled away and looked at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Also, I mentioned this to Luther earlier, but I think the first step should be getting some fucking therapy,” Dave said. Klaus laughed and let go of Dave’s hands. He brought his hands up to his neck and pulled him closer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I’m sure Luther loved that comment,” he laughed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, he walked away as soon as I said that,” Dave laughed back. “I think he’s really gonna take my suggestion seriously.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah,” Klaus giggled. “He probably left to go search for a therapist right that second because he thought your idea was so great.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were both still laughing when Klaus pulled Dave closer and kissed him. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A few days passed with little to talk about. The house was as chaotic as Dave expected it to be with the entire family and the two Commission agents staying there. Vanya started practicing controlling her powers. Luther and Diego faught. Five, Patch, and Dave shared stories from when they were working for the Commission. Klaus explained how he knew Dave before he arrived in their time, much to the horror of his siblings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thing that actually caught everyone off guard was when Klaus conjured Ben for everyone to see. They were even more surprised when the first thing he said to his entire family in fifteen years was, “You’re all so incredibly fucking stupid.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Klaus fell into Dave’s side laughing as the siblings’ jaws dropped, their chorus of gasps and sounds of surprise quieted by Ben’s statement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Actually, no,” Ben said and held up a hand, spinning to look around the room. He stopped looking and pointed across the room when he saw Patch. “You, you’re smart.” He gestured to everyone else in the room and added, “The rest of you, how are you alive?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pure chance,” Klaus said at the same time Diego said, “Because Patch showed up.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, that can’t be the </span>
  <em>
    <span>only</span>
  </em>
  <span> reason,” Luther defended. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes it can,” Dave said without looking up from the book he had in one hand, the other busy holding one of Klaus’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“None of you fucking talk to each other,” Dave said, finally looking up. “None of you would know what was going on if Patch hadn’t come in and demanded to know everything.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, you don’t know that,” Luther said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah,” Dave said and shut the book and set it on the floor in front of him. “Where were you guys before Five talked to Patch?” Luther narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything. He crossed his arms over his chest and slumped back in his seat. Everyone was so caught up in their conversation, no one noticed that Ben had disappeared at some point. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we really that bad?” Diego asked, though he seemed genuinely curious rather than defensive. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, forget about being on the same page, you guys are in different books on different ends of the shelf,” Dave said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we all just gonna gloss over the fact that Ben was just here?” Vanya asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s always here,” Klaus said, face a bit paler than it was before Ben appeared. Dave raised a hand to his cheek so he would look at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You okay?” he asked, ignoring the rest of the siblings’ questions directed to Klaus. Klaus nodded and faced his siblings again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Always here, always calling us dumb,” he said. His eyes looked at the empty space where Ben had appeared, then looked back at Dave with a laugh. “He says Dave’s idea is still the best for all of us.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what’s that?” Vanya asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dave looked at her and answered. “Fucking therapy!” </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>ahh thank you so much for reading this!! i had so much fun writing this and im really proud of it. as always, feel free to come talk to me about tua on tumblr (EXCEPT INCEST SHIPPERS FUCK YOU GUYS) @lastyoungrene-gay-de</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>come yell at me about tua on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de</p></blockquote></div></div>
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